This Sun phrasebook appears to be a pre-publication copy of the first edition of The Self Educator produced for the compiler Sun Johnson.

A handwritten note from the binders to Sun Johnson at the front of the book and the red crayon crosses through some of the pages suggest proofing or revision marks but this requires closer research.

The main difference between this edition and the second edition Sun phrasebook is that the text in this phrasebook is a reproduction of handwritten English and Chinese, whereas in the second edition phrasebook a typeface is used for both Chinese and English. There also appear to be more advertisements in this earlier phrasebook. The headings used in both phrasebooks are the same.

This edition contains a Chinese preface, lists of numbers, days of the week and time-related words and is then divided into sections with words and phrases related to different occupations and situations (words for vegetablemen and fruiterers; stores; carpenters; in court; pressing for debts; applying for a situation; ordering clothes; buying clothes, shoes, socks etc; cooks; hawkers; to let houses and gardens; making bargains; on board steamers; troubles in the street; buying medicine from dispensaries).

It finishes with a list of names of people and occupations and some sample documents (addressed envelope, invoice/receipt, cheque etc). There are advertisements at the beginning and scattered throughout the volume.

This phrasebook is part of the founding David Scott Mitchell collection in the Mitchell Library. David Scott Mitchell was a bibliophile and book collector whose collection was bequeathed on his death to the State Library of New South Wales and forms the foundation of the Mitchell Library.

Sun Johnson (孫俊臣 Sun Junchen) was one of the first editors of the first Chinese-language newspaper in Sydney, the Chinese Australian Herald (廣益華報 [Guangyihuabao]) 1894-1923. He was born in either 1865 or 1868 and educated in Hong Kong and then London before migrating to Sydney in the late 1880s.

Note that both phrasebook copies in the Mitchell library pre-date the publication of the newspaper.

Johnson, Sun, 'The Self Educator,' Sydney, 1 v. (various pagings), 19cm, c. 1892.

Note pasted in 'printed ... for Sun Johnson 1891' and signed 'D.S. Mitchell'.